An estimated 2.5 million people, mostly women, marched today against Trump worldwide. Others protested yesterday. Were you one of them? Share your story, share your pictures and videos in the comments! Or any good photos and videos you’ve run across online.
I think what we’ve got here is a real mass movement.
No trolls or Trump fans in this thread, please.
I signed up for the march in Lincoln; unfortunately, yesterday, I had a freak accident, and can’t walk. So I’m grounded.
But I did visibly protest the inauguration by wearing my cat ears (pussy ears) all day yesterday – and when anyone asked (as most did, though a few just stared), I explained I was protesting the president who brags about grabbing them “in the pussy”. Got a lot of support.
I was in Trenton, NJ, where an estimated 6000 turned out at the war memorial with a march to the state house. The crowd and speakers were diverse, lots of men and children were there, lots of pink hats.
I really enjoyed most of the speakers. We had representatives from lots of organizations like planned parenthood and NOW, our rep and some other politicians, a woman responsible for nearly all the LGBT legislation in our state, various religious leaders, immigration lawyers, and more.
I carried a planned parenthood sign.
Overall, the mood was optimistic and cheerful despite the chilly overcast day.
I hope these marches inspire further action: calls and letters to politicians, more marches, supporting vital organizations and standing up for one another against bigotry and stupidity.
We won’t go back!
I went to a protest and saw a guy with a Trump characticture costume that included a cardboard toilet. It said “Dump Trump” on the back of the water tank.
As stated in earlier threads, I went to the one in Melbourne yesterday, which was the first time I’ve ever been to a protest. At first, I was scared that there’d be neo-Nazi counter-protestors, or that I’d somehow become an alt-right meme like “Carl the Cuck” or “Trigglypuff” or someone, but there weren’t any counter-protestors, which I found rather encouraging. However; that was just the case for Melbourne, of course. Were there counter-protestors at marches anyone else went to? If so, what did they say/do?
Hey, ScarlettAthena, I was also at the Trenton march with a friend from my church. We had both wanted to go to DC but she couldn’t do that one physically. So we went to Trenton instead. I believe the turnout was three times what they had originally expected, and it was a pretty impressive sight!
The costume guy.
Went yesterday evening. I don’t have pictures, but it was a peaceful march and a fairly large crowd in Milwaukee.
This is not my president. Nor my government. I’m tired of the rich white assholes who just want to pad their investments instead of thinking about the future, progress and advances be damned. They want to stay at the top of the mountain even if that mountain is made of the corpses of their victims.
This has got to stop. Bullies need to shut up.
I live in Australia and I would have attended the Sydney march – except I didn’t hear about it until it was over!! A couple of days ago I even googled to see if there was one happening. Must not have put in the right keywords because nothing came up. But I did stay up all night watching the live stream of the Washington rally. I know at least 4 people that were there.
@Ginormica,
It was impressive! We didn’t get into patriots’ theater! We were part of the crowd outside. We were pretty amazed that it filled up so quickly. I think we got there at 9:15 and it didn’t start till 10.
I was really encouraged by the turn out.
I was at the Denver march with estimates of 100-200,000 people!! It was so great! I saw so many wonderful signs. I keep playing this song on my speaker.
https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=8bAPfsdOkjc
I went to a demonstration in Amsterdam, that protested both the inauguration of Trump, and our own Dutch equivalent of that monster – Geert Wilders (he even has the terrible hairdo). A terrifyingly popular politician who is very Islamophobic. He wants to ban the Koran and shut down mosques in the Netherlands, and years ago he proposed a tax on wearing the hijab (yes, really) and he wanted to deportate any Dutch citizen of immigrant decent with a criminal record. Shortly put, the guy is a racist maniac, and right now, he is leading in the polls.
The demonstration was larger than I expected, the Netherlands haven’t been a very protest-y country in a long while, but it seems that Brexit and the election of Trump formed a bit of a wake-up call.
I got a tattoo to confirm my gender identity confusion. There was no women’s march or anti-Trump event in my city, but there was a protest against violations of asylum seekers’ rights. Sadly we both caught a fever and needed to cuddle up in bed for the rest of the day.
I’m back from the London march. It was a fantastic day. Here are some thoughts.
The March was from the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square (in British memory, mainly famous for anti-Vietnam protests in the 60’s and the astoundingly imperialistic whopping great eagle leaning out of the building). We were there at 1140, and speakers started around 1200 although the only one I properly heard (due to amplification problems) was a wonderful Muslim woman who, amongst other things, paid tribute to Jo Cox. I can’t help thinking that part of the reason for the huge turn out in London was the frustration arising out of Brexit and its aftermath. But anyway…
The March started at around 1230. We were in the square itself (ie on the grass in the middle) and it took a LONG time to join the March on the street and even longer to leave the square. I was in front of the Embassy from 1140 to 1350. So I took 1 hour 20 to walk what usually takes 2 minutes tops. That might give you an idea of the crowds.
There was some fabulous banner work on display. My two favourites (amongst stiff competition) are “This is a Peaceful Protest. Unless we are all on our Periods at once.” and “We are in your homes. We are in your businesses. We have your kids.” Being London, we had a few self-effacing signs. I was marching with a “Down With That Sort Of Thing” (shout out to Father Ted fans), which got a lot of attention. I’ve also seen “Quite Annoyed” and “I’m Not Happy”.
Celebrity spots: I swear I saw Yvette Cooper (sorry to non-Brits who have no idea who she is, and Brits who have no clue either; she’s a politician, you may know her as Ed Balls’ missus), but there’s photo evidence that Gandalf/Magneto, Doctor Who and Bodhi Rook were all in attendance (aka Sir Ian McKellen, Peter Capaldi and Riz Ahmed – the pilot in Rogue One and all round star). I’d say male:female ratio was 25:75 and I’d have liked to see more BME faces, but all ages were represented. Plenty of Americans were here, and were welcome, whether here on holiday, here to study, here long-term or now in exile. There were a decent number of dogs (despite concerns of being trodden on) including my own Toby who did his best to keep the crowds feeling loved. There was also a cat, according to pictures, which is frankly astounding.
Judging from the Facebook page, there was a significant minority who had never marched before (including my friend and co-marcher). Lots of kids and the atmosphere was very positive. We counted 7 police officers for the entire March, which gives an indication. I saw one balaclava, but it was holes cut in a bobble hat (which displays a level of enthusiastic amateurism) and no unrest has been reported. I overheard a husband debate with his wife the feminist qualifications of the Spice Girls (“aren’t most of them Tories?”, “they are a symbol of what they were saying at the time”), so I interjected with ” If only ideologically perfect people get to protest, we’ll be protesting in a small room on our own” – they both agreed.
Reports are saying London was 80-100,000. I hope we all take this as fuel for future activism, rather than this being the sum total. I had IRL friends marching in Detroit and Canberra. Today has restored some hope for me.
I haven’t yet, but I’ll march in the Salt Lake City Women’s March on Monday, and return and report.
I marched last night in Seattle, after a rally put on by one of our local socialist groups. At one point, I heard some news-type tell a camera that it looked like we had about two hundred people marching. (I haven’t double-checked that, however.) We held up traffic at various points for a few miles and did a little die-in thing along the way before ending up at the University of Washington, but with support the whole time from people who were watching. Drivers honked their horns and waved, people on buses filmed us with their phones, we exchanged peace-sign gestures…that sort of thing.
So, yeah, about the shooting that happened–fortunately, I missed it by being part of a crowd that got there later. I still saw where the victim’s blood had spattered onto the ground, though.
Some Trump supporters lingered and shouted back at us. I saw a few, but only a few, and the rest of the crowd (socialists, anarchists, anti-fascists, and everyone else) outnumbered them by so much that I wasn’t surprised to see some of them leave.
I stuck around until it seemed like nothing was happening anymore, then left the campus to get water. I saw about three people rinsing their faces with milk (?) and crying and squinting like they’d been tear-gassed (no idea what had happened there), then briefly ran into a couple of Trump supporters who’d been there for the Milo thing. Then it was on to the nearest restaurant for food, water, and rest. (I guzzled my first two glasses of water before my sandwich showed up.)
I ended up getting home by about eleven p.m., sore and pumped-up at the same time.
Sorry for going on at length, by the way.
Wish I could have gone out. I also am hugely positive about what I’ve been hearing – wow! They’ve got the halls of power, maybe, but we’ve got everywhere else! I really hope that this inertia continues. Don’t let this become normal, everyone. Stay shocked.
It’s likely that protesting will become illegal in the US soon – there are a few states which are giving police the ability to clear roads and highways “by any means necessary”, effectively crippling the ability to march. The screaming turnip isn’t gonna slow that down at all. I don’t know what to do about that, but I do know that something has to be done about it.
Go get’em, everyone! Even if it’s just in little ways. We can do it!
@IP, ooh, what’s your tattoo? If you wanna share.
You’re all doing a great thing with your efforts.
@Scildfreja Unnýðnes
“The only 1st amendment rights is the one that allows me to oppress you” /s
@Scildfreja
Transgender/NB symbol stylized as a combined pocket watch/compass. On the inside of my right wrist. My Otter drew it for my birthday. 🙂
I will take a picture once it’s healed.
My story? Bunch of my buddies commenting “why don’t they protest the Saudi regime or FGM?”
The best part? They’re mentioning this more today than any other time.
The US has a president and his cabinet who cast a shadow of uncertainty over gender relations. Just what will “there has to be some sort of punishment for the woman” pan out to mean? And how they intend to keep their main demographics committed?
Yet this, not any other time, is when my colleagues suddenly become vocal about FGM and the oppression of women in various regions of the world. And the butt of a collective logical fallacy no less. Anyone else get those kinds of comments?
My mom went to DC. My college roommate went to DC. My aunt was in San Fran. I had friends at NYC, Chicago, Charlotte, Atlanta, Sydney, OK City, Nashville, Knoxville and some tiny little town in Mexico – and I’m probably forgetting some! I was in London.
Unlike Weatherwax, I left Grosvenor square sometime around 12:30 because we just happened to be near an exit, but there were THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS ahead of me. It was massive. I’m no good at estimating crowd sizes. A friend of mine who was also there said she’d been to the Europe one in the summer and that was officially 50K, but she said this felt much bigger, so she thought the organisers’ estimate of 80-100K was probably right.
It was peaceful. Other than a bit of confusion leaving the start, it was well organised. I heard no official speeches.
There were very, very few ‘counter protestors’ and no trouble-makers. Because of my immigration status, I can’t get arrested and I sure as heck don’t want to get deported back to Trumpland and I was with my son, so my plan was always to get out of dodge if there was the least whiff of trouble. There was none. Cold but sunny. Some amazing signs – loads of people in high spirits.
I needed to do this for me. And I’m so glad I was part of the biggest protest I have ever heard of.
Not marching because I don’t do well in crowds and work is going to be hard enough on my bad leg. Our local march is staying in place because they can’t fit on the march route. Seems to be happening a lot of places :).
There was also a protest yesterday that went well into the night. That one was attacked with flashbangs and tear gas.
I couldn’t make it to any of the marches because the nearest one is in Toronto and I’m in the boonies (over an hour’s train ride away, which gets expensive since the GO trains don’t come out this far). So I’m watching all the other marches over the Internetwebpipes, and loving it. Kudos to all who made it out, and to all who didn’t, too. Keep up the fight on ALL fronts!
I marched in Ashland, Oregon. Tiny Ashland had the biggest crowd I had ever seen! Much enthusiasm, great sign-fu, and wonderful speakers. The organizers wanted to keep the tone positive and focused on women’s issues (which was not observed by some of the more hilarious signs/sign makers), so I went with a quote from a Renaissance play. Ashland is after all the home of America’s Shakespeare festival and it gave me the opportunity to let my nerdy/scholarly Renaissance freak flag fly! The quote: “I’m armed with more than complete steel,– The justice of my quarrel.” Frequently attributed in error to Christopher Marlowe, but more likely written by Thomas Dekker. See? I am a nerd!
I couldn’t march today, but I’m collecting stories and photos.
My wife marched in our Bay Area community, while I took care of the kids. She wanted to bring the kids, but they really weren’t up for it. Maybe next time. It looked like it was a lovely march, with great feelings of solidarity and whatnot. Hope there are many more.